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The hundreds of “temporary” foreign workers coming from China starting this autumn to work in northeastern B.C. coal mines will end up staying for years, if not decades, predicts the president of a B.C.-based employment agency.

And some of them may end up getting ripped off and even going home in caskets if the B.C. government doesn’t ensure proper regulation, said Kael Campbell, president of the Red Seal Group, a Victoria firm that helps match companies with skilled tradespeople across Canada.

“There is a true shortage of workers in northern B.C.,” said Campbell, a former employment standards officer in the B.C. Labour Ministry. “These Chinese workers are not going to be replaced by Canadians in this current economy. They will likely be nominated by the company for permanent residency and work in northern B.C. for years, if not decades.”

Campbell said he has no problem with the argument from government and industry officials that the Temporary Foreign Worker (TFW) program is an economic necessity.

“Chinese coal miners built towns like Cumberland, B.C., and were a huge part of the founding of Canada (by working) on the railway.”

But he said there should be a long-term plan to integrate the workers that goes far beyond the employer’s plan to teach each of the 200 workers recently approved by Ottawa a list of 100 English words related to safety and technical matters.

“We really have to question how a miner who knows 100 words in English will know what their rights are or how to follow” government-mandated safety procedures.

He cited one incident in 2007 when two Chinese nationals brought to Canada under the TFW program died when the roof of a holding tank collapsed over their heads at an oilsands project north of Fort McMurray.

The Alberta government confirmed in June of 2008 that an investigation determined the workers were being shortchanged.

The widow of one of the accident victims, Ge Genbao, said her husband told her he would make the equivalent of $600 a month. He should have been making $30 an hour, or at least $4,800 a month, plus overtime and benefits, according to the union that represented the workers, the Edmonton Journal reported.

SSEC Canada Ltd., the Canadian subsidiary of Chinese state-owned oil giant Sinopec, pleaded guilty last month of failing to ensure the safety of the workers killed and injured in the accident during construction of the Canadian Natural Resources Ltd.’s $10.8-billion Horizon oilsands project.

The Crown is seeking a fine of $500,000, according to the Edmonton Journal. Sentencing is set for Jan. 24.

Campbell estimates that about 15 per cent of temporary foreign workers in B.C. are scammed out of part of their pay, often by middlemen in Canada or in the country of origin.

He said the B.C. Employment Standards Act, which covers temporary foreign workers, has a maximum penalty of $10,000, far short of the $100,000 fine and two-year jail sentence that can be imposed under new legislation in Alberta.

He said the B.C. government also needs to ensure that the employer has qualified safety officers who can communicate with the workers in their language. The B.C. Labour Ministry also needs to have Mandarin- and Cantonese-speaking officers who can speak to the workers.

“The B.C. government should be asking what is happening to ensure some of these workers don’t end up going home in coffins.”

The B.C. Ministry of Jobs, Tourism and Skills Training said Friday that provincial rules require “underground coal mine managers and foremen to be fluent in the English language and pass an examination in English.”

The Vancouver Sun reported earlier this week that a group of companies, all Chinese with the exception of a Vancouver company founded by a Chinese-Canadian, plan to use hundreds of Chinese temporary workers at four separate underground coal mine operations in northeastern B.C.

Only one of the four, the Murray River project near Tumbler Ridge, is at the environmental review stage. It is slated to begin full production in 2015. The other three projects are at various stages of development and have many more hurdles to overcome before becoming operational.

The president of the company involved in developing all four properties said the consortium tried and failed to find Canadian workers because of an “extreme” shortage of workers with training and underground mining experience.

Naishun Liu of Canadian Dehua International Mines Group Inc. said the companies had no option but to hire experienced Chinese workers.

“Using foreign workers is an expensive choice as the employer has to provide full transportation (and) accommodation, which costs (the) employer much more than hiring local Canadians.”

He said the mine will have bilingual interpreters and well-qualified supervisors in accordance with Canadian standards.

“Our goal is to ensure the foreign workers earn the wage no lower than Canadian workers,” Liu wrote The Vancouver Sun in an email Friday. “What’s more, (our goal is) ZERO death rate in safety operations. Our projects will adopt the most advanced technology and equipment.”

He said the companies developing the mines promise to replace Chinese temporary workers with trained Canadians within 10 years.

“Though the foreign workers are temporary, we will make efforts to encourage foreign workers to integrate ... into (the) local community by learning English and Canadian culture. There will NOT be any ‘Chinatown,’” he wrote.

But the companies are finding that Canadian workers aren’t willing to work for the wages on offer.

The backers of one of the four proposed coal mine projects, the Gething underground mine project 25 kilometres west of Hudson’s Hope, posted job offers last year for a dozen underground machinery mechanics, paying $25 to $32 an hour. Canadian companies are required to advertise job openings before they can obtain permits for temporary foreign workers.

Both Campbell and Karen Watt, chief executive of Excel Personnel Ltd. of Kamloops, said that rate is significantly below the industry standard. “Chances are they won’t find an underground miner (in Canada) who will work for $25 an hour. I mean, they’re putting their lives at risk,” Watt said.

Even $32 an hour, or about $66,000 a year, is low, she said, adding that qualified and experienced underground miners make anywhere from $73,000 to $120,000 a year.

She said she agreed with Campbell that the workers will inevitably apply for permanent residency, given the relatively high wage rates in Canada compared to China’s.

Jody Shimkus, vice-president of environmental and regulatory affairs at HD Mining International Ltd., which is developing the Murray River project with Dehua, said the Canadian government accepted her company’s application for foreign workers after the company advertised the jobs at “competitive” wages in Canada and couldn’t find experienced personnel.

HD Mining, which is developing the Murray River project with Canadian Dehua, will be following all Canadian and B.C. safety rules and will ensure that employees are treated fairly, she said.

poneil@postmedia.com Twitter.com/poneilinottawaRead his blog, Letter from Ottawa, at vancouversun.com/oneil

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B.C coal mine’s temporary workers from China will be here for years, maybe decades

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